


Blanket Buddies

by kdeutsch80



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
Genre: Family Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-14
Updated: 2014-09-14
Packaged: 2018-02-17 09:58:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2305631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kdeutsch80/pseuds/kdeutsch80
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, the best cure for the blues are hope and a good blanket</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blanket Buddies

**Author's Note:**

> My first-ever attempt at fan fiction of any kind. All mistakes are my own and I’m sure some of the grammar and punctuation usage would give my childhood english teachers nightmares. That’s what happens when you haven’t done any creative writing in at least a decade!
> 
> Written for Prompts in Panem Round 6, Day 3: Yellow
> 
> Visit me on Tumblr, I'm kleighd80!

Once her absence was noted, Peeta knew there was only one place she would have gone to. He immediately set out from their home and headed for the fence. Constant use of this entrance by Katniss and others over the years had resulted in more and more of the fence being pushed away, effectively allowing him to only duck slightly and head into the woods. If he knew her half as well as he thought he did, then Peeta knew she would be at the lake.

After some distance, he slowed down. Just as he had suspected, there she was. Sitting atop a rock, her pant legs rolled up allowing her feet to break the surface of the water. He stopped for a minute to take her in. Peeta would never get over how beautiful she was and how it had only increased these last few months. He leaned against a tree and smiled at the braid of dark hair that was being twisted in her hand and the swollen belly being caressed by the other.

There were only a few things in this world that could rival the excitement he felt about that tiny life growing under her hand. The joy of knowing that he would get to teach this little one to paint and bake, among other things, had helped fight off the nightmares and replaced them with dreams of the future. The joy was still present in him when he saw her sigh and lean back on the rock.

“Are you going to just stand there all day and stare?” she asked. The corners of Peeta’s lips turned up and he chuckled. “Never did master the art of walking silently” he quipped, “that was always your mother’s skill.”

They both laughed and Peeta sat down on the rock beside her. A few moments of silence passed between them.

“I thought it would be Mom that would make the trip through the woods to find me.”

Peeta shook his head and grabbed his chest in the most dramatic of fashions, earning a roll of the eyes from her. “Well, she figured that you could use the company of your blanket buddy, but clearly your mother was wrong,” he replied.

His antics earned him a smile. The girl leaned and nudged Peeta’s shoulders with her own.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen my blanket buddy but, maybe Mom was right.”

“I haven’t seen my blanket buddy in a long time too. For some silly reason, she decided to get married and run off to another district. Told me it was because she was in love, or something crazy like that.” This time it was Peeta that leaned over and nudged her with his shoulder.

“I’ve missed you Dad. Sometimes, I miss all of you so much it hurts. But when I get to that point, I grab a blanket and sit under a sheet in the living room. I’m pretty sure Jacob thinks I’m nuts when I do that,” she said.

They spent the next hour reminiscing about their time as blanket buddies and how the whole thing had started. How Peeta had come home from the bakery one night to find her still awake and his wife sitting on the couch looking utterly defeated. He listened while the little girl with two braids sat on his lap and told him about a boy in school that had called her names. Katniss had offered up everything she could think of to make the little girl feel better but it was no use. He thought for a moment and remembered something that had always cheered him and his brothers up on the days when their mother was being particularly harsh.

Peeta set the little girl down and told her to wait. He returned a few minutes later from upstairs with a bed sheet in one hand and her blanket in the other. Both of the women in his life watched with curiosity as he grabbed a chair from the dining room, placed it facing the couch and draped the bed sheet over it. He grabbed the throw blanket off the back of the couch and crawled under the sheet. The little girl watched him intently and came running when he waved her over.

He watched her frown start to fade away as he explained the fort to her and told her how it would take away all the sadness. She smiled when he handed her blanket to her, a soft, yellow thing that had been given to her by Haymitch when she was born. Peeta showed her the throw blanket from the couch and declared that they would always be blanket buddies from now on and would shoo away the tears together.

The fort worked and the little girl quickly turned back into the happy, giggling six year old that she was. It was the beginning of a tradition that would last through her teenage years and would always bring a smile to Katniss’ face when she saw the bond that these blanket buddies had with each other.

Once the memories had become fewer and far between, another comfortable silence fell between them. After a few moments, Peeta turned to the young woman and put his hand under her chin.

“Willow, are you going to tell me why you’re hiding out here?”

He turned her head to face him and his concerned blue eyes met their twins, glassed over with tears being held back.

Willow looked down and sniffled. Quietly, she whispered, “I’m afraid, Dad.”

Peeta moved closer to her and wrapped his arms around her. “Oh cupcake, why are you afraid?”

Before she could stop herself, the doubts and worries that she had been feeling came tumbling out.

“What if I’m not ready for this? What if we’re terrible parents? How do I keep her safe? What about when she’s older and learns about you and Mom? What if she hates you for it? What if she hates me for it?”

Peeta squeezed her tighter. “Ok, let’s address that first one first. No matter what anyone ever says, you’re never ready for the birth of your first child. You can read all the books and attend all the classes you want, but you are never ready. That doesn’t mean that you’re not capable though. Are you going to make mistakes? You bet. But you’ll learn what works for you and her and you’ll find a rhythm.”

Willow wiped the tears away and listened to her father’s calming words.

“Second,” he continued, “were you sent into two arenas to fight to the death? Was Jacob taken prisoner and hijacked? No. So you’re already two steps ahead of your mother and I in the good parenting department. Your child won’t have to wonder why there are days that you can’t get out of bed or why her father has to hold onto a chair while her mother tries to calm him down.”

“Dad, you sell yourselves short. You and Mom are amazing parents and I can only hope that I’m half as good at it as you are.”

“Thanks, Willow,” Peeta replied. “As for everything else, you just do the best that you can and cross those bridges when you get to them. And if all else fails, your mother and I are always just a phone call away.”

Willow nodded and buried herself in her father’s hug. They sat there for another moment or two; Peeta offering all the comfort and assurances that he could and his daughter gratefully accepting it.

“I know we’re not in the living room under a sheet, but I’m still glad that I have my blanket buddy out here,” she joked.

“Hey blanket buddies stick together, through thick and thin,“ Peeta replied.

“Even through labor?”

Peeta nodded. “Even through labo – wait, what?”

Willow grinned. “I might not be ready, but she is. My water just broke.”

The next morning, the pre-dawn silence of the house was broken by the sounds of a newborn crying. Peeta was in the kitchen when it happened and his heart leapt for joy. He paced the room for a short while until his mother-in-law came down to tell him that Willow was asking for him.

When he entered the room, his heart stopped at the sight. There was his beautiful daughter, sitting up in bed with a small bundle in her arms. His wife was sitting beside her, cooing over their granddaughter. Jacob stood and walked over to Peeta. The two embraced and offered their congratulations to each other.

Willow motioned for Peeta to come closer. She offered up the tiny bundle and he gently took the infant into his own arms. He cradled her and choked back the sobs.

“Katniss, we have a granddaughter,” he managed to say. He looked over at his wife and the pride and joy that was on her face broke down his walls. He cried softly while rocking the infant.

Katniss came over to stand next to Peeta and marvel at their granddaughter together. “Her name is Hope,” said Katniss.

A nod of the head was all that Peeta could manage. After a moment, he gestured to the door and asked, “may I?” Willow nodded and yawned. As she lay back in the bed, Peeta walked out of the room with Hope.

He returned a few minutes later with his granddaughter swaddled in a soft, yellow blanket. Willow’s eyes widened at the sight. “Dad, is that, did you keep it?”

Peeta nodded again. “I figured that there would come a day when you would have a new blanket buddy and I wanted them to have this. It’s been sitting in my closet, just waiting for this moment.”

He walked over to the bed and put Hope back into her mother’s arms. “I love you Dad,” whispered Willow. Peeta leaned over and kissed her forehead. “I love you too.”

“Why don’t we let you guys have some time alone to get to know each other better,” asked Katniss. She steered Peeta to the door and out into the hallway. They wrapped their arms around each other and Katniss tucked her head under his chin. “I can’t believe we’re grandparents,” whispered Katniss. “Amazing, isn’t it?” replied Peeta.

Katniss pulled back a bit and looked at him. “Willow will only tell me that you two had a long talk in the woods yesterday, but not what it was about. I know she was worried about something. So are you going to tell me what you talked about?”

Peeta reached back over to the door and opened it. The new family was all snuggled up together in the bed, asleep. He turned back to Katniss with a smile and said, “In a nutshell? I just told her that she needed to have hope and a good blanket.”


End file.
